Mortal and Machine
by swaggyzebraTW
Summary: Dorian is taken captive by the evil XRN Danica, and has no idea where he is or how to escape. What is it that she wants with him, and will he agree to any of her demands? Will Kennex and the rest of the team be able to get there before it's too late? Dorian/Kennex friendship. Episode Tag: Season 1, Episode 9: "Unbound". One-shot.


**A/N: Right off, I will say that this is my first time writing in third person. It is also my first time writing for **_**"Almost Human"**_**, which I had just began watching yesterday. So, I have not seen every episode. Dorian will be a little OOC, simply because I didn't capture his personality in this. Now, with all of that out of the way, please enjoy, and remember to review at the end, even if you did not like this. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own **_**"Almost Human", **_**and all rights go to FOX™ television and their people. The characters are not mine, and belong solely to their respective owners. **

"You're not like the others," Dorian stated slowly; his wrists twisting within the cuffs placed upon them.

The woman before him nodded, a smirk working its way across her face. "If by the others, you mean you," she said, "then, no. I am not quite the same as them."

Dorian's blue eyes flitted around the room, seemingly looking for some means of escaping. He had been in here for at least an hour, of which he had been unconscious for the majority of. All he could remember was fighting alongside his partner Kennex, when he had felt a sharp jab and his neck and everything had gone black. When he had woken up some time later, he had been tied to a chair, in the same position he was in now.

"What went wrong with you, then, Danica? What makes you different from me? What makes you the coldblooded killer that you are?" He asked cautiously, knowing a single wrong decision could result in his immediate termination. The woman—machine—in front of him was nothing more than a ticking time-bomb; a dangerous one at that. She was known solely for her unjust brutality, and had never saved a human life before. Dorian doubted she would now, either.

Surprisingly enough, Danica chuckled, which was a scratchy, terrible sound. The smirk on her face grew impossibly larger, and she took a step closer to the chair Dorian was in, which was centered in the middle of the room. "If I am not mistaken, we are the only two left of an abandoned race. We are the _same_, Dorian. There is no part of me that is any different from you. We were cut from the same cloth—destined to be together. Think about it. We could defeat—"

"Do we _look_ the same?" He snapped, not caring for the briefest of moments about the consequences of doing so. She couldn't hurt him any more than she already had, and he couldn't be placed in any worse of a situation. Danica had nothing to use as leverage on him; nothing that could ever make him wish to join her.

That odd cackle escaped her throat once more. "Do you and Kennex look alike?" She countered.

"I don't know what you're planning, Danica, but it's not going to work." Dorian said, looking away from her.

She stepped closer to him. "How do you know it will not work if you do not know my plans?"

"I've been told enough about you to know that your plans are always evil, and that you've always been stopped. My partner and the rest of the police force are going to stop you, just you wait and see."

Dorian felt her cold hands brush his chin, and she forced his face upwards until he was looking into her deep and soulless brown eyes. He could see that she was analyzing him, and the bright circuitry on her temples was lit up into an array of reds and yellows with her concentration.

"They could have removed you from the force," she stated, "but they didn't. Your files don't tell me why, either."

At that, he smiled. "They kept me on the job because I do as they wish. I protect the city, unlike you, who murders its innocents."

Something inside Danica snapped right then, and her eyes turned crimson for a moment as her voice raised. Her hands tightened on Dorian's collar, and she began to yell in his face.

"I took you out of their grasp to _help_ you! Can't you see? We could be the most powerful couple in the universe, we could rule it and kill all the silly mortals. You wouldn't have to follow their annoying rules and protocols, and we could restart our race. You could help me make more of us, and we could build and army, and—" she trailed off.

Suddenly, it hit Dorian that she had not taken him as a prisoner of war. He was not her hostage. No, Danica had taken him because she believed that he was the key to her ruling all of humanity. She thought that he would want to be with her, and wish to help her in any way he could. In fact, in her own little corrupt way, she probably loved him. Why else would she have spared him so long?

"Danica, what are you saying?" Dorian whispered, almost positive he would be revolted by her answer.

Her eyes turned back into their previous shade of brown, which was almost coppery in comparison to that of a human's. She was still wearing the same tight, black gear that she had been using during the fight an hour ago, although the blood stains on it had been hastily wiped off with only slight marks left in their wake that could even begin to tell of their previous existence.

"I'm saying," she snapped, "that you should take the offer I'm giving you. Join me, and you'll never have to follow another order. We are virtually the _same_, Dorian. Don't you see that? We have the potential to—"

"No," Dorian stated. "That's where you're wrong. We are not the same, Danica. All of these years, we've been fighting for different sides. Neither of us are willing to change our alliances—"

"My alliance is with myself," she interrupted, "and possibly you, if you're willing to forget your precious partner and join me."

Dorian smiled a little at that, and some blue cyber-liquid spilled from his split lip. "John Kennex is not someone you can easily forget, Danica, if you could believe it."

Confusion washed across her features, and her bionic head tilted to the side a little. "What do you mean? Of course he can be forgotten. He's just a foolish, replaceable, mortal—"

The door to the dim-lit room opened quickly, and bullets sprayed from the newfound gap. The loud sounds that came from the gun echoed in the chamber, and Dorian threw himself and his chair sideways and onto the floor to get out of the way. Danica—who had obviously not been expecting company—turned around sharply, only to begin taking steel to the torso.

She reached for the pistol strapped to her thigh, but she couldn't function properly enough to bring it into her grasp. Men in black SWAT uniforms began to file into the room, and they soon forced her onto her knees with her hands behind her back—ready to be tied. Curses spewed from her magnetic lips, and sparks flew from many of the bullet-holes in her artificial body.

I-I-I…" she stuttered lamely, her voice changing due to the damage done to her systems, "I have grenades, and I'm not afraid to use them! Leave or everyone dies!"

A new face entered the chamber, and he grinned while looking at the pitiful grenades strapped to Danica's breaking chest. "Don't you need to be able to use your hands to be capable of setting off those explosives?" He taunted.

The XRN shook her head furiously, and her eyes turned red before they exploded from her head. The sparks coming from inside her flared up as her body caught aflame, and the MX that had been restraining her stepped back to avoid being burned.

"Get out! She's going to explode!" Dorian yelled, his body barely visible beneath all the smoke clouding the room.

John Kennex's head snapped upwards, and he frantically scanned the area for his partner.

"You heard him," he snapped to the MXs in SWAT uniforms, "get out of here! She's going to explode any moment!"

The police machines didn't linger, and began to exit the room as neatly as they had entered it. They felt no emotion, and didn't think twice about leaving their commander behind in a hell hole to try to save his partner. And, within a minute, they were gone, and John was left coughing as he groped around the room searching for Dorian.

"Dorian! Where are you?" He called frantically, he voice echoing a few times beneath the sound of crackling fire and sparks.

There was a brief pause before he got an answer, which was only Dorian making a large grunting noise.

"Are you okay? Can you come to me, Dorian?" John asked, still feeling around blindly.

There was a scraping sound as Dorian tried to move his chair. "I can't," he explained, "Danica handcuffed me to a steel chair."

"Break the cuffs," John said, accenting every one of his words with either a wheeze or a cough at this point. "You're a big boy, Dorian, just tear them off."

"Danica was an XRN too, remember? She gave me carbonized steel ones that even I can't break out of."

A large clank came from the generic direction of where Danica's explosive remains were, signaling that time was running low. John walked faster, his hands now sleeping in large arcs as he searched for his partner.

"Just leave me, Kennex." Dorian said, sounding resigned. "I can be replaced, as I'm just a machine. You, on the other hand, cannot. You'd be killed during the blast. Leave me, and save yourself."

John shook his head even though he knew Dorian couldn't see it. "You know I can't do that," he said. "You've saved my life more times than—"

"I don't care! I didn't save your life just so you could throw it away for a machine!"

"You know you're not a just a machine, Dorian."

It was then that Kennex's calloused hand met Dorian's jacketed shoulder, and they both expelled a breath of relief. John drew his handgun, and felt for Dorian's cuffed wrists. When he was satisfied that he knew where they were, he aimed, and pulled the trigger a few times.

Dorian felt the metal shatter against his skin, and it pierced painfully into his wrists, but he was free. As hastily as he could, he pulled himself to his feet, grabbed his partners hand, and sprinted off towards the exit. It was an awkward run towards the orange glow marking Danica's flaming carcass, and it seemed to have taken forever, but eventually they spotted the darkness that marked the outside world.

Kennex and Dorian were just leaping out of the door when the explosion went off, and the momentum sent them flying towards the pavement below. They let go of each other and covered their heads as shrapnel flew at their backs and a loud noise pierced their ears. John's cheek was driven into the pavement painfully, and Dorian's artificial eardrums felt like exploding, but as the noise died down, they realized that they were both going to survive with only minor injuries.

Dorian looked to John and grinned. "Admit it," he said to his partner.

"Admit what?"

"You've grown to like me." Dorian sing-songed.

Kennex stood up abruptly, whipped some of the dirt off his hands, and began to stalk away. "No I don't," he said. "You're still just as annoying as you were when I first met you."

The XRN got up as well, and began to walk after his partner. "You like my annoyingness, though, don't you? You're happy I'm your partner, and you know that deep down, you really care about me. I saw it then."

"Why would I ever prefer you to an MX?" John joked, rolling his eyes.

Dorian placed a hand to his heart feigning hurt. "Take that back, John."

"I don't think I will."

"You know you want to."

John sighed and hopped onto the back of an ambulance that was on the scene. "I think I might just forget to charge you tonight, and let your batteries die."

" ." Dorian said, chuckling. "I am capable of plugging myself in, without your help."

"I could unplug you while you're sleeping."

"And I could stay awake all night."

"Touche."

And so, whilst surrounded by a burning building and hundreds of police officers and cop cars, Dorian and John Kennex smiled at each other, and continued their banter as partners, seemingly forgetting the events of the past hours. For then they were just mortal and machine, getting along better than any two of a kind ever could.

**A/N: Well, that was pretty bad. I still have writers block, and that was pretty cheesy throughout, but I felt like I needed to et something up. To any of those who are following me, thanks for the continued support, and I should be back with updates throughout the week. Anyway, please review, and thanks for reading!**


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